Wilkinson ran bronze gears for a while. He said the teeth eventually wore down to razor blades. The symptom was that the engine stopped running because the timing was too far off. This was a car he was driving daily, back in the glory days.
Below is a photo of a cast iron gear that ran on a steel cam. This gear came out of my GTS project that you may have seen in other posts. It is the reason my car became a project. Fragments from the failed cast iron gear damaged the engine enough to require a rebuild. The previous owner told the shop to refinish the engine bay and suspension while the engine is out. Then covid happened and he ran out of money. I ended up with the car. It was largely disassembled but the engine had already been nicely rebuilt.
